The restraining of a person by use of a manually applied restraint device, such as a handcuff or manacle, is well known. These restraint devices are used, for instance by a law officer, in order to render a suspect harmless. These restraint devices and method of application have inherent deficiencies. They require the officer to have his hands free (of weapons, searchlight, etc.) in order to successfully apply the restraint device. During this time, the officer's attention must be focused on the task and taken away from other activities, such as monitoring and controlling other suspects at the scene. Additionally, the close proximity of the officer to the suspect, gives the suspect the opportunity to make contact with the officer to inflict injury.
An appendage restraint device has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,237 by Thompson. This device uses conventionally shaped arcuate, metal manacles that are mechanically positioned in an opened and closed state by an electric motor, gear, and clutch mechanism. In the closed position, the manacles contact the suspect's wrists and apply a constant compression force. This is not a currently approved method of restraint, due to possible wrist injury.
Further, the manacles are operated by switches located near the manacles. Although this distance provides some protection from assault, it restricts the proper positioning and movement of the officer, which increases the risk for assault by the suspect or may facilitate his escape. This restraint device is described as being mounted to the outside of a police vehicle, where it is unprotected with respect to environmental contaminants. Ingress of dirt, water, snow or ice would thus impede its operation. Additionally, the arcuate manacles do not readily lend themselves to being covered by a protective bellows or boot.
Another appendage restraint system, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,439 by DiDimenico, provides for a manacle closed by magnetic attraction. That magnetic closure means introduces several distinct disadvantages. The magnetic forces are relatively weak in the initial closing position (pole pieces are far apart) and produce an extremely high closing force in the closed position. This force would be sufficient to cause wrist injury. Additionally, the fixed wrist aperture width would not restrain the smallest hand, when dimensioned to allow the passage of the largest hand that would be encountered in the field. In some instances, continuous contact with the wrist would be made and this would be in violation of commonly accepted handcuffing safety protocol. This restraint mechanism is also slated to be affixed to an outside of a vehicle and exposed to environmental contaminants. Its structure does not readily allow the use of a protective covering.
A bladder system and inflation means embodiment is also contemplated to alleviate some of these problems, in that the height and width dimensions of the aperture are now adjustable, but contact with the wrist must still be made and maintained in order to provide restraint. Additionally, the fluid filled bladders do not provide sufficient rigidity in the pullout direction, to prevent escape. A radio transmitter link is an improvement to the Thompson patent for obvious reasons. It is, however, unnecessarily complex with a plurality of control buttons, thus making it difficult and distracting to operate effectively, by the officer in the field.
Further, the restraint system described by DiDimenico, as there is no fault detection inherent in the design, requires a direct monitoring and action by the operator or officer, who is typically at a remote location. He thus is unable, in most circumstances, to carefully monitor each stage of the restraint activity. A fault condition may occur during opening or closing of the restraint and remedial action, by the operator may, be delayed or not occur, which may be injurious to the suspect.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that there is still a need to provide an improved wrist restraint device, which can restrain and release an individual's wrists of various sizes, without injury, with minimal operator interaction, with adaptability to various restraint, and release methods and maintain its functionality in harsh environments.